UMR Selmet at a glance (2024)

In the world's warmer regions, hundreds of millions of families make a living from livestock farming. Animals provide milk, meat and leather. They work in the fields, facilitate transport and recycle plant waste. With their manure, they fertilize the land, encourage natural vegetation and crops, and help sequester carbon in the soil. However, today's livestock farmers have to adapt to climate change, dwindling water reserves and declining biodiversity. Fodder resources are becoming scarcer, feed ever more expensive, and certain health risks higher. Even more so than in other parts of the world, livestock farming is particularly vulnerable in Mediterranean and tropical zones. Researchers at the SELMET Unit aim to respond to these challenges.